It was set to be a great day, with many out for some summer jumping. Even if Jallen sadly wasn’t to be out this weekend, instead opting to be at the cinema in Birmingham, to watch Suicide Squad. I was really looking forward to being out, so much so I had headed off to town early to get my training under way. When I arrived, I was sad to find David wasn’t out today. I had hoped to do some filming and he helps keep me motivated while training as we vibe off each other with the movements we try. I was feeling a bit demotivated about the day now, but as the masses arrived that soon changed. Well, that was until I was hit by extreme fatigue and not too sure why. I was feeling unsure what to practise, doing a few k2ps while we waited for the stragglers to appear before we moved on. Phil was meant to be out, but as of yet he wasn’t. Patryk was late too, for whatever reason.

One highlight of the day was after Frankie rode in on his bike, some of us kept ringing his bike bell, much to his annoyance and it wasn’t just me that got enjoyment from doing it either! I think it secretly got to him, as he covered it up soon after so none of us could ring it again and asked us politely not to do it again. But, did we listen to that warning…?! We ended up moving over to Audo to train and that is where I captured some footage at various points of the day, collecting footage for a few weeks to see what I had and maybe make a video. I did the small upward precision near the side of the area, which I had struggled to do in recent times. I still hated it whenever I did it though, that feeling never change. What a strange jump, only ever so slightly upwards and with a sign in the way for craning the jump.

Patryk – Precision.

Dizzi did a precision further down the set of steps, the mid section which I think is around about ten to ten and half (of my shoe) feet across. So very few people have done and do that jump, well except the big jumpers. It still blows my mind, whether it’s because it looks bigger than it is due to the steps widening as they go down, but it always looks massive. I joined Frankie, doing a precision to a slab that had a lamppost in the middle of, he of cause did it easily. Even though he said he felt he wasn’t as in tune with his precisions as he normally was. That he found it a hard jump too!? I was only just hitting the jump and felt ugly compared. Everyone was dotted around the area, doing their own movements. I was unsure where to go next and what to practise, that was until I saw Patryk had found a new, I say new but what I mean to say is a jump that I haven’t seen before nor have I ever seen anyone else do it.

It was fresh, but looked horrible too. I decided to film Patryk doing it, although he seemed to be unable to land it now, bouncing the jump each time. Much to his frustration, I guess the added filming pressure had got to him. I wanted to have a go too, but it felt insanely far, bigger than I could reach currently. Not to mention it was scary to hang in the air for the landing and if you didn’t commit, well you had the awkwardness of buckling on the steps. I got Frankie to come and have a look, he took one look and laughed before prepping for the jump. I think Frankie felt the same with the awkwardness of it, as he kept jumping to the side of the steps. While filming, I felt due to the Cinstyle profile I have on my camera, it made everything seem very drained and even hard to see on the viewfinder when filming. I hope the video clips come out okay, as I couldn’t see anything while filming and wasn’t even sure I liked the setting.

Ben – Running Precision.

Patryk was also practising a nice run involving a lazy vault, running stride up the steps, dive roll and other movements linked together. A very Euro style, different and I like that. It’s always nice to see linked movements and people using the same areas we have trained for many years, differently. Again, it is something we need to practise more of, even after all these years we are still very singular in the movements we do. Then you get people from other countries who visit Nottingham and then you see the different style instantly. Gio is another great example of another practitioner that was able to link movements and do crazy runs as well. In the past there are stages where the community will start to practise a few movements together, like with anything it soon diminishes over time and then we fall back into old habits.

I finally mustered the courage to give the Audo precision (seen above) which everyone did downwards, as a running upwards precision instead. Patryk did it easily and Damo was contemplating trying it as well. For some reason I liked it more as a running box jump! While Damo was stating he would do it, getting cocky and yet when he was landing to the side of it on the floor to gauge if he would make it, he somehow managed to land awkwardly, jarring his back, and looked like both ankles buckled too. To which Phil and myself looked at each other like WTF?! Continue reading ‘Ghettos, Bridges & Mental Barriers.’

To say I was hyped about today, was more than an understatement. It seemed that many were in attendance this week, even some old school members like Eddie, Steff, Luke and even Adrian! Chris was out too along with his sister and I’m sure more once we were out training. It was looking very promising indeed. I had woke up to a very warm day, and it was meant to only be hotter later in the day too. I dread to think how hot it would be, once we were out there in the urban jungle jumping around. It currently felt like walking out in a different country due to the heat that hit you, after leaving the house. There were lots of police around town today, due to a EDL march that was happening within the Market Square and thankfully nowhere near where we would be training today.

I arrived in town at exactly 1pm, making my way to Plaza to find the guys there training and waiting for others to arrive. There was also a new guy called Patryk, a small, dread locked Polish guy. He introduced himself and carried on training, he had some really nice movements, which some might call the European style. Much as many of the foreigners have, linking all their movements together into a singular run. Slowly the trickle of people to the jam increased, meanwhile I headed off to collect my new creating movement t-shirt design I had got printed. A design I had worked on for a while, liked but was unsure how it would look in real life and how popular it would be compared to the others. I was also collecting some for the other guys too and when I arrived back the group it had increase in numbers drastically. Even Kezza was out, now there was a miracle in itself.

Water Bottle.

Today was a good day, I felt strong, my movements felt good and yet I was feeling so tired leg wise too. How that made any sense I have no idea as it wasn’t like I had worked them in previous days. Seeing as we hadn’t seen some of the older generation of practitioner, there was much catching up and trolling. More so to Eddie, I must apologise for the amount of gay and sexual innuendos that accured. The first joke happened was when he said something about grasping a thick pole, then later, when we were speaking about having a pulled ass, we all instantly looked at Edd. Luke was finished with training, before he had even begun when he did a cork and had hurt his ankle, becoming a fully fledged poke-trainer for the rest of the day. It seemed everyone was rather indecisive, when it came where we should move to next…

In the end we all moved across the road to the Atrium, ugh is the feeling that comes to mind as technically it’s still a similar area to Plaza. Zain arrived late, and wasn’t taken away by the masses of EDL while he made his way through town. He said he hadn’t seen any of that but there was some carnival thing going on in Leicester as he made his way over. While the guys remained training at Atrium, David and myself moved up to Houses area to train, only to find various cars park in the way and the place open. So then we moved over to High Pavement where some were already there tricking. We both drilled the downwards precision, which in the past has felt big and too scary to do. It felt quite easy to do today, even though I had twinged my back for the second time today.

Npk – Creating Movement Design.

The rest of the group had joined us, with many doing running strides across the pebbles to a grate, which made a massive amount of noise when they hit it and then off there to cat a further wall. It was a fun run, David had it nice as did the others, if only I had filmed them! Steff ended up jarring his back while doing one of the strides, already adding to his bad back of late. Eddie was finished, he was feeling tired and the burn from being unfit. Adrian wasn’t feeling as bad as he expected, even if he felt massively unfit too. People briefly moved over to Orange Walls, which had yet more flipping happening. Continue reading ‘Sun, Shades & Silliness.’

People had made it clear, that it was time for more exploration jams within Nottingham. Some were up for doing just that, this weekend. With Highfields being a desired location, seeing as that was a recent place of training. With that, I created an event for the day. I wasn’t that bothered about meeting people in town first, as that would be a long slog for myself. It was quicker to get there of my own accord, I had put step by step instructions on how to get there via all modes of transport. James felt that was a bit unfair to people that were still unsure, or couldn’t understand the instructions of how to get there. I had covered ALL the possible ways to get there and how, it was up to the others attending to make their own way there and meet up with people on the way if needs be. It’s not like they’re all kids any more and needed a chaperone for a trip…

I was unsure how I was getting there myself now. I had hoped to get a lift from Adam, but he was meeting others in town first now and going via tram earlier than the meet up time. I could have gone via bus, but that would take ages, meaning I would have to be going into and out of town. Another route, which was the more direct and easier way there didn’t have a bus from mine. In the end I did manage to get a lift to QMC, only to find the bridge over the motorway was closed! Since when?! I had to walk the long way around and through the university campus, doing a few jumps on my way to kill the time. The others had bumped into Daniel Bunkle and a few others who were out in Nottingham for the ‘Fearless Jam’ organised by Jack Cobb. Which seemed like it was to be a bit of a shambles, organization wise and I’m not too sure how it would go day wise. Annoyingly it was on the same day, we had chosen to venture.

As I arrived at the meet up point, there was no one to be seen. How on earth did this happen? I was a tad later than expected and everyone else should have been there long before I was, due to meeting in town an hour and half before the meet time. The few people who were sat on the grass bank sunning, looked at me oddly while I jumped around on the edge of the tall walls beside the lake, waiting for everyone else to arrive. Derby Tom of all people had arrived first. He always seemed to be out on these adventure days, which I’m sure is only coincidental, but we never seem to see him any other time. The rest of the guys did finally arrive, they were late due to waiting on others in town and had mentioned that Femi wanted them to wait for him too, as he was running late. They obviously didn’t and I don’t blame them, I wouldn’t have either with him ALWAYS being hours later! #blacktime

I was unsure what to practise, instead opting to eat while the others warmed up. Some of the guys at one side were jumping to the steps from a wall, going up a step each time. A tree branch seemed to be hampering them and so I decided to break it down. The tree was dead anyway and it allowed more space to precision to the steps further up. Pete and James said to not destroy the tree and stop, as there was no need and it makes us seem like vandals. I wouldn’t have done it, let alone been able to if the tree was still healthy! Continue reading ‘Parkour & GO.’

The weather this weekend was unpredictable again. I wanted it to be good and yet it seemed like it wouldn’t be for the nearly second month in a row, this made me very sad. It had been so long since I had been out on a Saturday training and with it likely to be raining again, this weekend might be another washout, typically. I woke up at eight, it was bright with the sun shining brightly, perfect weather for training! To my surprise it remained sunny as I got up and ready. I think the predicted rain had put many off as there didn’t seem to be too many out for the day and I would have been the same had I not woken up early. Adam was set on being out, James seemed to be iffy due to his adductor pull, which had been plaguing him on and off since the Jallenges [1] training session. Even Keaton was set to be out! As time went on, it seemed more people were coming out. I was waiting for Adam to pick me up, though seeing as he was running late I decided to get the bus instead as I was ready to go now.

I got to town just before one o’clock and found David at the Atrium jumping around on his lonesome, waiting for others to arrive. What was more crazy about today was when Jonathan arrived! He was actually out today, he said he might be, but I had heard that many times before without him actually making it out. He said he knew he was going to be out when speaking with me this morning, but wanted it to be a surprise. I can’t even remember the last time he was out to be honest, maybe back in January? Keaton arrived next, though he was wanting to do a spot of Urban exploration later on at the scaffolding field, for a new exploring video of his. What with the success of his most recent video [2] production, which even got featured on various sites and Notts TV too. It wasn’t that long now, until he was enrolled in the Army and wouldn’t be out at all, even though he had started to train more locally at the Parkour park and seemed to be enjoying it in recent months.

Jonathan – Portrait.

We trained at Crowne Plaza for a bit while waiting for others to arrive. My kong precisions were feeling utter rubbish again and my pulled shoulder and neck were affecting me. It was odd to see Keat scared of diving kongs now as he used to have them in the past. It was one of the movements he wanted to reclaim today if nothing else. After some drills, he did get them back on all the walls, even the lowest one too. James arrived and started to warm up, along with Phil too. As time was getting on I was ready to move and anyone else who hadn’t made it, knew the drill and when they should have met! So any of those late comers would have to find us, time wasters! We moved into the Old Market Square, where Phil spent some time filming time-lapses of the council house while the rest of us watched and did a few movements as we waited, we had bumped and collected Jennings on the way too. I left Phil to it while a few of us headed off to the Lace Market.

I wanted to check out a church on the way which we had trained at long ago, only for it to be open and so it was a no go for today. We walked around to the side of it which had a small area to train on, but it had some junkies there, getting high. It seemed most places today were inaccessible annoyingly. We bumped into Zulu while making our way to the Adam’s Building, looking very dapper in his clothing and hopefully we shall see him again at the Parkour Park in the future, once Summer arrives. Continue reading ‘Portrait City.’